Free State’s eight total wins were one better than second-place Olathe South.

Kendall Pritchard led the Lawrence High girls, as she finished with a 2-1 record at No. 2 singles. The junior has seen some encouraging early results after making an effort to become more aggressive.

“I usually just hit right towards the middle (last year) with safe shots,” Pritchard said. “This year, I’m just working on better strategy and hitting more winners.”

LHS coach Chris Marshall also left pleased with the play of No. 1 singles player Whitney Simons, who finished 1-2 and took Olathe South’s Taylor Stout to a tiebreaker, and the No. 1 doubles team of Brooke Braman and Zoe Schneider, who played their best tennis late in an 8-5 victory over Olathe South’s Haley Dunkak and Megan Barb.

“The best thing about it is it’s the beginning of the season,” Marshall said, “and we still have the whole season to work on some things and to iron out some of the problems we had.”